Dream Catcher
by Dingaling11
Summary: Tony gets sick and has a really bad fever. When he sleeps,he has horrible and creepy dreams and it gets hard for him to tell whether they really happened or if they were just dreams. I really suck at summaries.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hi Everybody! So this is my very first story, I hope you guys like it. Please review I would love to read what you guys think about it._**

**_Sadly I don't own iron man or any of the marvel characters,even though I wish I did. _**

**Chapter 1:**

_Keep running and don't stop. That's what his mind kept telling him,even though his body told him otherwise. He had no idea where he was,all he knew was that he was lost deep in the woods. He had to find Pepper and Rhodey,he already lost Happy and couldn't afford to lose them too. Maybe if he kept running he would find them._

(5 hours earlier)

"Tony you better be awake and ready to go!" Pepper yelled as she entered the mansion. She was waiting for one of Tony's snarky remarks,but all she heard was silence.

"Jarvis, where is ?" The red-headed woman asked.

" is currently in his workshop,Miss Potts." The British voice of the A.I. replied.

Pepper sighed as she went down the stairs that lead to Tony's workshop. As she hit the last step from the shop and entered her code on the door, she saw Tony slouched over his work table with papers everywhere. She rolled her eyes as she knew that Tony had worked all night until he literally passed out. He was sitting on a stool and his head was laying on his arms over the table. Pepper was about to gingerly wake him up, but then she remembered the time Tony had woken her up when she fell asleep on his couch from working too hard.

_(2 weeks ago)_  
_Pepper was typing away on her laptop trying to finish some last-minute papers she had to email. She looked at her watch and saw that is was 2:30 am. 'Almost done' she said to herself. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open,when she yawned she was way too tired to open her eyes anymore. 'I'll just rest my eyes for a minute' she thought to herself. She laid her head back against the couch and passed out. It was 3:30 am when Tony decided to come up from his workshop to call it a night. He thought Pepper had left a long time ago, but as he was about to make his way upstairs to his bedroom he saw Pepper looking silently at the t.v.,at least that's what he thought. _

_"Hey Pep, what are you doing, I thought you-" _

_When he walked towards her that's when he realized that she was deep in her sleep. Tony smiled as he watched her sleep, then an idea came to him,causing his smile to grow even wider as he figured out how he was going to wake her._

_"PPPPEEEPPPPPEERRRRRRR!" Tony yelled at the top of his lungs. _

_Pepper let out a girly scream as she literally jumped up from the couch, forgetting that her laptop was on her lap as it went crashing to the floor. She looked at Tony to see why on earth he was yelling. Tony was just laughing, bending down and holding his sides as he laughed. _

_"That...was...priceless Pepper" Tony said trying to catch his breath._

Unlike Tony, Pepper never was a person to play pranks on people, she thought it was childish. But remembering the way Tony woke her up, she vowed that she would get him back, and now was a perfect time to get back at him. She slowly crept up behind him and leaned closer to his face. Holding in her laugh, she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"TTOOONNNNYYYY!"

"AHHH!" Tony stood up right away tipping over the stool and almost tripping over it, as he looked around.

"Eww..Tony you...have drool..on your face." Pepper said between laughs.

"No I don't" Tony was still trying to figure out what the hell happened.

"Then why is a paper stuck on your cheek?" Pepper said trying to calm herself down. Tony saw the paper from the corner of his eye on his cheek and took it off. "Jeez Pepper, you didn't have to wake me up like that. You know a simple kiss on the lips would've woken me up in no time."

Once Pepper controlled herself, she was starting to regret waking him up like that. She took a good look at him and noticed that he was sweating and looked kind of pale. "Tony are you OK? I didn't give you a heart attack did I?" She really hoped she didn't scare him that bad.

"No, I'm fine my head just hurts a bit, but I'm sure it'll go away once I take a shower." With that Tony gave Pepper a small smile and went to go take a shower. Pepper stood there for a while wondering if it was just a headache that made him look pale.

20 minutes later Tony was in his room shivering, trying to put on his clean clothes. He thought his headache would've gone away by now, but it was just getting worse. He felt miserable and sick, but he would never admit that to Pepper. After struggling to put on his clothes he felt light-headed but decided to shrug it off and made his way downstairs. Pepper had just finished making breakfast when she heard Tony coming down. She was just about to tell him something when Tony felt light-headed again and fell down the last 3 steps of stairs.

"Tony!" Pepper rushed to his side to see if he was OK.

"Ow, I'm fine Pepper I just missed a step on my way down, it's OK." Tony gave her one of his famous irresistible smiles to try and convince her that he was OK. Reaching out to help him up, she felt as if she were touching a hot stove. She moved the back of her hand towards his forehead and definitely knew he had a fever.

"My gosh Tony you're hot",she said, her tone filled with worry. As soon as she said that she knew that was a poor choice of words.

"Tell me something I don't know."

"I meant you're burning up. You need to go to bed and get some rest." Pepper helped him up off the floor and they both cautiously went up the stairs to his bedroom. She helped him lay down and pulled the covers over him. "I'll be right back, I'm going to go get you some water and medicine."

"Pepper I told you I'm fine, it's just a little cold. I don't need rest." Tony began to complain but Pepper was already downstairs getting the things she needed.

When she made her way into the room, she saw Tony was trying so hard to keep his eyes open as exhaustion was trying to take over. "Here take these, they'll make you feel better and it'll help bring your fever down." Pepper said as she handed him the pills and water.

"You didn't even check if I have a fever, which I don't by the way. And if you're assuming I have a fever, well then never assume because then you make an ass out of u and me." Tony said, hoping he could make Pepper forget that he was sick.

Pepper rolled her eyes at his comment and asked Jarvis, "Jarvis, please scan Mr. Stark's body temperature."

In no less than a minute the A.I responded, "Mr. Stark's current body temperature is 103.5 degrees Fahrenheit."

Pepper let out a small gasp when she heard how high his fever was. "Now you know you have a fever, so just take the pills Tony." Pepper said in a firm tone that she uses to get him to do anything.

"OK, fine" Tony knew he wouldn't win that argument and took them.

"Thank you, now get some rest while I go clear up your schedule for the next couple of days." As Pepper left the room Tony just nodded and let the pills do their work and welcomed sleep.

**_Again thanks for reading and don't be afraid to tell me what you guys think, hope you like it! I should be able to post chapter 2 maybe towards the end of the week,so stay tuned! _**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

His nose and eyes stung as he breathed in the smell of burnt flesh. Tears slowly made their way down the genius' cheek. _'How could this have happened?'_ Tony thought to himself.

"It was just a stupid dare! The fucking Devil doesn't even exist!" Tony yelled out at the top of his lungs, hoping anyone could hear him.

He looked at the body that was already unrecognizable. It had been mutilated; the right leg was missing and the left arm was dangling by its last tendon. The person was still alive after the attack, but a couple minutes later it spontaneously combusted. The roaring flames were finishing whatever misery the poor person had been through. The cries were unbearable for Tony as he knew who this human being was...

Happy.

The genius felt useless seeing that he could not do anything to help his friend out. He just stood there screaming as if he were the one that was on fire. Minutes passed as Happy finally decided to give up fighting and let death welcome him.

Now Happy was unidentifiable and that made Tony sick to his stomach, as he threw up on the ground. He felt tired and just wanted to lay there with his friend, pretend like nothing ever happened. As he was about to do this, he heard terrified screams coming from deep within the woods.

That's when Tony remembered that he still had to find Pepper and Rhodey. He cursed himself for ever forgetting about them in the first place. He got up, took off his jacket and gently laid it over his dead friend, then took off running towards the painful screams.

_Keep running and don't stop_.

That's what his mind kept telling him, even though his body told him otherwise. He had no idea where he was, all he knew was that he was lost deep in the woods. He had to find Pepper and Rhodey, he had already lost Happy and couldn't afford to lose them too. Maybe if he kept running he would find them. It was late at night and all Tony had was a small flashlight guiding him through the woods. He knew he was getting closer as he heard the screams get louder and louder. He noticed there was a clearing between the trees filled with light. When he ran into the space he tripped over something, and fell on his stomach. Slowly rolling himself onto his back, he noticed that the painful screams had stopped. Tony sat himself up to see what he had tripped on. It felt like he was being stabbed in the stomach as he saw Rhodey laying on the ground right where he had tripped.

Half of Rhodey's facial skin had been sliced off and the rest of his body was covered in blood along with leaves and dirt.

"Rhodey!" Tony yelled, he could already feel the tears stinging his eyes. The scared genius tried pushing himself to stand up but kept falling, until Rhodey's hand caught Tony's ankle.

"T-Tony...h-he-help...me." Rhodey rasped in agony.

Tony quickly collected himself and knelt down next to his best friend's side.

"Don't worry man, everything is going to be fine, just hang in there buddy."

Tony was trying to stay calm as his friend was quickly panicking. He put one of his hands on Rhodey's forearm and his other underneath Rhodey's back.

"OK, on three I'm going to sit you up very slowly so it won't hurt that much."

Little did Tony know that it was going to be very agonizing for his best friend...

"1...2...3.." Tony pulled up as gently as he could but felt as if his grip was loosening while he tried sitting up his friend.

Rhodey was half way to sitting up when he fell back, screaming in pain. Tony looked down in sheer horror as he saw what had happened. Half of Rhodey's skin was in Tony's hand, it had slipped right off him so fast and easily that Tony didn't have time to react. Once again the genius felt useless, knowing that if he tried moving him the skin would easily slip off again.

"K-kill... .Tony" Rhodey slowly spoke as he was still in pain.

"What?! No way, I can't do that, Rhodey you're my friend." Tony said, trying to hold in his tears.

"Th-that's why as a friend...I'm asking you to do it. Please Tony..I'm in so much pain...put me out of it" Tony saw tears rolling down Rhodey's cheek as he spoke.

He couldn't. But this was his friend who was in excruciating pain, pleading him to end it all. He had to think this through. Slowly getting up, Tony found a stick that looked sharp enough. Holding it in his hand he said, "I'm so sorry Rhodey. This is all my fault."

"It's OK Tony...I want you to do this, j-just do it fast." Rhodey was crying as he already knew what was about to come.

Tony took in a deep breath, raised the stick up in the air and as quickly as possible, shoved it right into Rhodey's heart.

He heard as the other man let out a grunt, then closed his eyes. Tony dropped to his knees sobbing as he just killed his life long friend. He tilted his head back as he still sobbed with his eyes closed.

_Tony..._

He heard his name being called out, it sounded like Pepper's voice. Deciding to open his eyes to see who was calling him, he saw his other friend, his girlfriend.

The love of his life was high up in the air, arms and feet tied to branches, making her body face the ground. He let out a choked sob as he saw Pepper's stomach was sliced open and all her entrails were dangling freely.

Again he felt sick to his stomach and threw up once more. He was at least somewhat glad that he didn't see her as she suffered an excruciatingly painful death.

She was already dead, but that didn't explain why he heard her calling him.

Feeling anger boil inside him, he stood up and started yelling at the air. "Come out you bastard! Show your face, I'm not afraid of you! What are you waiting for? Come on!"

The sound of a twig snapping behind him caught his attention. Tony turned around to see what it was, and stared wide-eyed at this creature.

Tony didn't run, just stood there in shock and in defeat. All his friends were gone, the love of his life was gone, and he didn't want to continue living without her.

He tried to think as to how he got here. All he could remember at this point was that he was telling Rhodey and Happy that he didn't believe in god, much less in the devil. He kept on rambling about how he was Tony fucking Stark and he wasn't scared of anything. That the day he would actually see the Devil himself he would believe in it, until then he wasn't going to believe in something stupid. He also remembered saying very drunk _"Man I dare the Devil, if he even exists, to come up to my face and show me that he does actually exist. I mean am I really supposed to be scared of an ugly person holding a pitch fork?"_

As Tony remembered all of this, he cursed himself for having such a big mouth.

The creature was slowly moving towards him, and Tony wasn't withdrawing, but holding his ground.

He assumed that this was the so-called 'Devil' people talked about. The 'Devil' wrapped a claw around Tony's neck, raised him high in the air, causing his feet to hang loosely off the ground. The creature began to squeeze Tony's airways and whispered in his ear,

"They say the Devil is not meant to be provoked, for his fiery grasp is not so easily escaped..."

That sent shivers down Tony's back, but he wasn't struggling against the grasp that the creature had on him.

_Tony._

He heard Pepper's sweet voice calling for him again. He figured it was just his mind playing tricks on him, because he knew for a fact that Pepper was dead.

_Tony._

Again he heard Pepper's voice, but he was already losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen and the claw around his neck had started drawing blood.

Tony drew his last breath of air while thinking to himself, _'It was just a dare, none of this was supposed to even happen.' _

With that, Tony closed his eyes still hearing Pepper's loving voice call to him one more time, until he finally let go.

_**Well I hope you guys like this chapter, please review I would really like to know what you guys think about my story :)**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi,** **sorry it's taken me awhile to update, I've been kinda busy. Anyway I guess this is kind of a 'filler' chapter, so it might not be that interesting as the last chapter before. **

**Sadly I don't own Iron man or any Marvel characters.**

It was late in the afternoon when Pepper poked her head inside her boyfriends room to see if he was OK. Thrashing on the bed, letting out low moans, and saying something incoherent wasn't even close to being 'OK'. As she walked further into the room, the red-head noticed that Tony's whole shirt was soaked in sweat. Sitting down on his bed next to him, her hand on his shoulder, she gently shook him, trying to wake him up. "Tony, Tony wake up."

"Mmm,stop" Tony's voice was barely audible, but Pepper could still hear him.

"It's OK Tony wake up, come on." Pepper couldn't stand seeing him suffer like this, so she gave him one good hard shove. Gasping,Tony's eyes flew open trying to take in his surroundings. "Calm down Tony, you were just having a bad dream. It's probably from the fever you still have." As Pepper spoke, she saw that Tony was staring out into space, with glassy eyes.

_Dream?_ That's the only word Tony heard. _It was all a dream? So Happy's still alive...and Rhodey too. And Pepper!_

"Pepper!" Tony's voice was hoarse as he finally spoke. He quickly sat up in his bed and embraced Pepper in the strongest hug he could muster up. They sat like this for a couple of minutes until Tony let go of her. He looked at her intensely to see if she was real and not just going to dissipate into thin air. Before Tony could speak, Pepper handed him a glass of water which he eagerly took. After finishing the water in three big gulps he spoke, "Are you OK?"

"Um..yeah I'm fine Tony. You're the one that's sick, _**I**_ should be asking _**you**_ that. How are you feeling?" Pepper was watching him closely as he was fidgeting with his fingers, something he always does when he's about to lie to her.

"I'm fine, that nap made me feel a lot better." Tony said, giving her a small smile, hoping she wouldn't ask any further questions.

"Do you want to tell me what your dream was about?" Pepper knew he wasn't going to tell her, but it was still worth a shot.

"I don't remember having a bad dream." Tony did his best to keep a straight face. He knew that is was just a dream, nonetheless it still scared him to think about it.

Seeing as she wasn't going to get an answer out of him, she moved the back of her hand to his forehead and once again asked Jarvis to scan Tony for his temperature.

"Mr. Stark's temperature seems to have gone down to 102.5 degrees." The A.I. replied calmly.

"Well at least its gone down a bit. I'll be right back, I'm going to fix you some soup."

As Pepper was getting up from the bed Tony grabbed her hand and softly said, "I'll eat in the kitchen, if I stay in this bed any longer I think I'm going to go nuts."

* * *

Tony and Pepper were making their way downstairs to the kitchen, slowly taking one step at a time seeing as Tony was still feeling light-headed.

"So I already cleared up your schedule for the rest of this week. Now all you have to do is just get plenty of rest and you'll feel better in no time." Pepper spoke as she was already mixing contents into a pot, her back facing Tony.

Tony was sitting at the table, not hearing a word Pepper was telling him. The dream he had was so vivid it kept replaying in his head over and over. No matter what he thought about, slowly the dream would creep its way back into his head, taunting him. _This is why I hate getting sick. Stupid dreams._

Tony was brought back to reality when Pepper turned around making her way to the table with the two bowls of soup for them to eat. What he didn't know was that his mind was caught between dream and reality. As he looked up at his girlfriend, he saw the same creature that was in his dream, standing fairly close to Pepper. Tony stared wide-eyed as the creature held up a finger and slowly shook it back and forth. As if knowing what Tony was going to do next, the creature swiftly sliced Pepper's stomach. Quickly Tony stood up making the chair fall, but the creature was gone in an instant, leaving Pepper standing there with pale skin and her entrails hanging loosely just like in his dream. "Pepper!" Just as Tony called out to her, Pepper looked normal again, she looked alive.

"What?!" Pepper shrieked, Tony's sudden outburst startled her as she was still holding the bowls.

It took him awhile to realize that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. "Uh..careful...don't...burn yourself." Tony smiled sheepishly at her.

* * *

Tony was helping clean the table once they finished eating, something he would never do before, but he just wanted to distract himself and get his mind off of what happened not too long ago.

"It's OK Tony, I'll finish cleaning you still have a high fever, why don't you go get some sleep." Pepper said taking the cloth out of Tony's hand.

_Sleep? Yeah right, if I sleep I'll have some other fucked up dream. No thanks._ Tony wanted to tell her this, but then she would think that he was crazy, so instead he told her, "Nah, I'm not really tired. I think I'll just go watch some t.v. in the room." With that said, he was making his way towards the stairs that lead to his bedroom.

"OK, I'll be up there in a bit." Pepper said, busy with rinsing some dishes.

Tony made himself comfortable in the bed and turned on the T.V., looking for something interesting to see. For the first time since he woke from his nightmare his mind was actually at ease. He resorted to watching Power Rangers because there wasn't anything else to watch. It also felt like he was watching himself, except his suit was made out of iron and what he did clearly wasn't fake as opposed to the show that he was watching.

As a commercial came on, Pepper walked in with some juice and pills. "Here I almost forgot you were supposed to take these when you finished eating." She handed him the juice and pills and made herself comfy in the bed as well. Normally she wouldn't sleep with Tony until the weekends, but she wasn't about to leave him alone while he was sick.

With out thinking, Tony swallowed the pills and put the glass on the nightstand. Both of them were watching T.V. for a while until Tony started to feel drowsy, that's when he realized that the pills he took were making him sleepy. _I can't fall asleep._ Slowly by slowly his eyes were drooping. _Don't fall asleep._ He saw that Pepper turned off the T.V. as well as the light but he was so sleepy he couldn't do anything about it. _Stay...Awake._ After a few more times trying to keep his eyes open, he knew this was a hopeless battle, so he gave up, letting sleep take over him. Just as he was almost out of it, in the back of his mind he was hoping he wouldn't have another screwed up dream.

**Hopefully it won't take me long to post up the next chapter. Please comment and give me your thoughts, I would love to read what you guys think about how the story's going so far! =)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi guys I'm really sorry I haven't updated for a while I've been kind of busy. But I really hope you guys like this chapter, I want to thank jojo32085 for pretty much helping me get this idea for the chapter.**

** Sadly I don't own Iron man or any of the characters (I wish I did though)**

Pepper had decided that she should wake up a couple of times to check on Tony. The first time she awoke was at midnight, sitting up slightly she looked over at the man that was sleeping peacefully next to her. She smiled at the sight of this and quietly asked A.I what his temperature was.

"Mr. Stark's temperature is still 102.5 degrees." Jarvis replied quietly. Satisfied with the answer she got, she laid back down on her pillow and fell asleep.

The second time the red head woke up was at 3:30 am. Again she looked at Tony, and asked the same question to Jarvis, which in return got the same answer.

_His fever is still the same? _Pepper thought to herself.

She wasn't sure whether to be glad that his fever hadn't gone up, or worried that it hadn't gone down. Still staring at Tony, she realized how cute and adorable the man looked when he was sleeping peacefully. She smiled to herself as she moved her hand towards Tony's forehead, then slowly made her way down to his cheek and gently stroked it with her thumb. Getting lost in her thoughts as she was still stroking his cheek, she didn't notice that Tony was starting to stir, in more ways then one...

Tony yawned as he slowly opened his eyes, turning his head to Pepper and giving her a small smile.

Realizing she had woken him up, she slowly retrieved her hand from his cheek and sweetly spoke,

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just checking your fever."

"It's OK, mini iron man is wide awake anyways." Tony said with a huge grin on his face, always referring his man hood as 'mini iron man'.

"Yeah well that doesn't look so _mini_." Pepper replied back, sporting a sly smirk on her lips.

He let out a laugh as he rolled onto his side and slowly started kissing Pepper passionately, getting a moan out of her. Tony knew he shouldn't be doing this as he was still sick and he didn't want Pepper getting sick because of him, but seeing as he heard no protests coming from the woman that was currently moaning, he continued.

After a couple minutes into their kissing session, they where both moaning into each others mouths. Tony was harder than ever and decided to let the real fun begin. He kissed her harder and passionately one more time before he gently rolled on top of her and started to peel off her shirt leaving a trail of light kisses. As he succeed taking her shirt off, he grinned at the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra and wondered to himself if she wasn't wearing any underwear as well.

He placed both hands on each of her breasts and started kneading them, then sucked on each of her nipples, getting a loud moan out of Pepper. He was about to make his way down to her stomach when she placed a hand on his bare chest next to his reactor, stopping him from his actions. Tony looked at her questioningly before she spoke.

"You're still sick, let me take care of you." Pepper whispered in his ear which sent shivers down Tony's spine, and causing him to slightly lose his balance. Pepper took advantage of this and rolled him off of her as she rolled on top of him, doing it so fast that it took Tony a moment to realize what happened.

This time she was the one that kissed him passionately before she took off his sweat pants prompting Tony to lift his hips. Throwing the pants on the floor, she sat on his legs for a minute just staring at his hard member through his boxers, then started to stroke him. Tony closed his eyes and let out low moans as she picked up the pace. He felt himself getting harder if that was even possible, considering he was already hard as a rock.

"Pepper...I'm not going to last long... if you keep doing that", Tony said between breaths. She did this a few more times until she felt how slick he was through his boxers. Coming to his senses Tony opened his eyes to see that Pepper had already taken off her yoga pants and underwear and now was trying to take off his boxers. Again he lifted his hips up to help her get them off and she quickly got rid of them. Again she stared at his hard rock and she could see the veins popping out, and throbbing for release.

Pepper stroked him two more times, moving her hand extremely slow with a very tight grip on him. "Oh..my god...Pepper." Tony said in between moans.

Once he caught his breath, Tony propped himself up on his elbows and started kissing his lovely red-head once more. Without breaking the kiss, Pepper slightly lifted herself and aligned herself with Tony's slick member. Being as impatient as he was, Tony started raising his hips urging her to sit down on him. Pepper raised a finger at him and seductively said, "Down boy", quickly Tony complied.

She smiled at him and gently lowered herself on him, both of them letting out moans in unison as they were joined together. They stayed like that for what seemed like eternity until Pepper placed both her hands on each side of the arc reactor and slowly started rocking her hips back and forth then gradually sped up. Her long orange red hair was hanging loosely from her shoulders as she bent down to kiss Tony as he moved his hips to meet hers, both of them letting out moans as they hit different spots in each other. The playboy tried to turn them around so that he could be in control, but Pepper didn't let him.

"Let take care of you I said." She said as she rocked her hips faster each time.

Tony wanted to make a comment about the thing but was too distracted with the pleasure he was getting, so he just lay there letting his girlfriend ride him as fast as she could. He could feel Pepper tighten herself around him, and he knew she was about to cum, he wasn't that far behind either. He could see it in her eyes she was about to let go. With one last thrust Tony gave her, Pepper threw her head back, looking up at the ceiling, moaning Tony's name as she let go.

Tony could feel he was almost there when Pepper reached her own euphoria. He was about to reach his own high when he heard Pepper let out a low growl as she was still looking up at the ceiling. He thought nothing of it, until she looked back down at him. Blood dripped from her face, half of her mouth appeared to have been ripped off and her teeth and gums could be seen. Her eyes were pitch black as a gruesome smirk spread across her face and a sinister giggling filled the room.

It took Tony a while to realize what he was seeing, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He felt something warm spill on his stomach, looking down it felt like deja vu as he saw Pepper's intestines spilling onto his stomach. Tony gasped, he tried to scream but nothing came out, meanwhile Pepper's quiet giggles were turning into hysterical laughter.

The smell was horrible and Tony thought he was going to be sick. He tried to squirm his way out of her but she had gotten heavy all of a sudden. One more time he tried to scream or yell for help but nothing came out, his voice was just simply gone. Pepper was still laughing as she was getting closer to Tony's face, opening her mouth very wide. Tony tried moving his face but somehow he seemed to have lost all mobility of his whole body. She leaned into his face like she was going to kiss him, but instead she was able to bite off a piece of Tony's tongue, making blood gush all over his face. The pain was unbearable, he could taste the blood in his throat. The red head was still laughing when she slapped Tony's opened his eyes after he got slapped and realized that Pepper had gotten off him. He turned his head to the side and saw Pepper staring at him. This time he was able to yell and tried getting out of the bed but failed and landed flat on his back on the floor.

Pepper had woken up to hearing Tony moan in his sleep. At first she thought he was having another bad dream but when she heard him let out another moan and saw the smile on his face she laughed, knowing what kind of dream he was having. After awhile, she was about to go to sleep when she heard Tony whimper. She let out a little giggle, but then she saw how his face looked scared as he opened his mouth. She waited for him to scream but the only thing that came out was a little squeak.

Pepper tried shaking him so he can wake up but it didn't work. Again he opened his mouth to scream but just another tiny squeak came out. Pepper was getting worried now, and continued to shake him but he wouldn't wake up. She was about to give up and let him go through with it when an idea came to her. Raising her hand, she muttered 'I'm sorry Tony', and slapped him as hard as she could across the face.

Now as she saw Tony fall off the bed, she looked down on the floor seeing a frightened Tony. Tony was about to get up and make a run for it when he saw that Pepper didn't have any blood on her, and looked normal.

He reached up to touch his mouth and felt that his tongue was still intact, _'Another fucking dream?!' _ He was getting pissed at the dreams he was having lately, he couldn't stand seeing Pepper like that.

"Tony? Are you OK?" Pepper's voice brought him back to reality.

"Uh.. yeah I just slipped." Tony spoke trying to play it off as nothing happened. He kept a close eye on Pepper as he got himself off the floor. He wanted to make sure she was real and that she wasn't going to turn into something creepy. He was hesitant about laying back down so he opted to sit on the edge of the bed instead. Pepper scooted closer to him and asked "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Immediately Tony replied, "No, I'm fine" He gave her a small reassuring smile.

Pepper silently wished that he would tell her what happened, she thought it would make him feel better. They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes until Pepper heard Tony's breathing even out. She looked at him and saw that he was sleeping sitting up, she smiled a little and gently woke him up telling him to lay down and go back to sleep. It took a while to for Pepper to convince him that it was OK for him to go back to sleep, but eventually he complied and laid down.

As soon as they were both settled in the bed, Tony put his hand to his cheek, "Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you slap me?" He could feel the slight burn on his cheek.

"Yes I did, you weren't waking up so I had no other choice." Pepper spoke with a little regret.

"Oh, thanks." Tony closed his eyes and fell back to sleep.

"You're welcome" Pepper murmured knowing Tony had already fallen asleep. Pepper was really worried about Tony, he still had a fever and kept having these bad dreams. _'If his fever doesn't go down by tomorrow night, I'm taking him to the hospital whether he likes it or not.'_ Pepper thought to herself as she closed her eyes, welcoming sleep.

**So I saw Iron Man 3 two times already and I just freaking love it! Please comment and let me know what you guys think :)**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Wow It has been quite a while since I've updated this story. I got caught up in school and work and I'm really really sorry it took me forever to upload this chapter. Anyways, I feel like this chapter was somewhat crappy I really wasn't sure what else to write with it,but I did try my best to make it good. **_

_**Sadly I don't own Iron man or any marvel characters :(**_

It was a little after 4:30 pm the next day and Pepper was in the kitchen making a list of some things she needed to get at the grocery store. She wasn't very fond of leaving Tony alone given the state he was in but she needed fresh food to make her famous soup, and she wasn't willing to take him with her either. Rhodey was still at the military base and Happy was the one that was going to be taking her to the store so she made sure that Jarvis called her if anything happened. She put her coat on and made her way towards the living room were Tony had been laying on the couch for most of the day, his fever had still stayed at 102.5 degrees and made no progress. She had decided that he looked somewhat better and that she would wait a little bit more on taking him to the clinic. When he had woken up in the morning Pepper made them breakfast and they spent some time together watching movies and playing some super Mario kart games on the Wii. Their quality time had come to an end when Pepper noticed she needed to buy some fresh vegetables for her soup.

"OK so I'll be back in a little bit, I already told Jarvis to call me if anything happens." She stoked his damp hair, as someone would do to a sick child. "You should take a shower if you're feeling up to it, it'll make you feel somewhat better."

"Uh-huh" Tony managed to speak, as he lay on the couch, eyes glued to the t.v screen while he played one of his old favorite games, Banjo Kazooie.

"OK, call me if you need anything." Pepper smiled at him before she went out the door, he looked slightly better than before.

"Yeah." Tony replied not seeing that she had already left. "OK, no more interruptions it's just you and me Kazooie." Tony said getting lost in the game.

* * *

At 6:30 pm Tony decided he was done playing, and realized Pepper hadn't come home yet.

"Hey J, what's going on, where's Pep?" Tony asked while turning off the t.v.

"It seems there is a storm in progress and traffic seems to be heavy, she still has yet to arrive at the store." Jarvis spoke, his voice filling the silent mansion as Tony listened to what he said.

"Wow, must be really bad then. Start the shower and make it as hot as possible." He got up slowly feeling a little light-headed,walked up to a window and looked outside.

It had gotten dark by now, trees were moving freely, the howling of the wind could be heard, the rain was coming down heavy as every 10 seconds thunder would roar and slightly shake the mansion. After a few minutes mesmerized by the storm, he went upstairs to his bedroom and made his way to the shower. Opening the door to the bathroom he saw that the condensation had started to build up on the mirrors, knowing that the shower was nice and hot for him just the way he likes it at times like these. As he undressed himself he cleaned the fog off the mirror and stood watching himself intently through it.

" I look like crap." Tony said sighing.

Still watching himself intently, he observed that his reflection was smiling devilishly at him, startling him. He took a step back, closed his eyes and counted to 10. As he reached to 10 he slowly opened his eyes and looked at himself again through the mirror.

"What the hell?" Tony mumbled to himself, seeing nothing wrong with his reflection.

He shrugged it off as nothing, telling himself it was just were his eyes had been plastered to the t.v. for a long time, and stepped into the steaming hot shower.

* * *

Stepping out of the shower at 7:20 pm, Tony felt better than he was before, his headache had subsided and his nose wasn't as stuffy anymore. He went into his room and put on a pair of pj pants and an old AC/DC t-shirt, then ruffled his hair dry with the towel.

"Jarvis has Pepper arrived at the store yet?" Tony asked, sitting down at the edge of the bed.

"Indeed sir, in fact she is on her way home, but there still seems to be a fair amount of traffic due to the storm." Jarvis coolly replied.

Tony nodded at Jarvis' answer and went towards the stairs deciding that he would wait for his girlfriend in the living room. Walking halfway down the stairs the lights started to dim at first and then flicker until they went out.

" Jarvis turn on the back up lights will you" Tony commanded the A.I., sitting down on the couch.

After a minute Jarvis replied, " Sir, there seems to be a problem with the back up lights as well."

Sighing, Tony made himself comfortable on the couch, " That's fine, I really don't want to fix them right now. Let me know when Pepper is almost at the house."

"Of course sir.", Jarvis replied.

_Well, might as well catch up on some sleep._ Tony thought to himself as he lay on the couch, slowly closing his eyes. Throughout the day Tony had took a nap somewhere in the afternoon, falling asleep with Pepper by his side. Hesitant about taking a nap Pepper had assured him that she would wake him up immediately if she noticed something wrong, he slept peacefully.

Tony fell asleep feeling very confident of himself that he wouldn't have another fucked up nightmare.

* * *

The crackling sound of thunder woke Tony up with a start making him sit up on the couch. He took in his surroundings and noticed that the lights were still off.

"Jarvis, what time is it?" Tony quietly spoke, hoping that if the A.I replied it would mean that he was fully awake and not dreaming.

"It is 8:00pm sir. I should also mention that Miss Potts has arrived back from the store and is in the kitchen preparing some soup." At the sound of Jarvis' voice echoing through the mansion, Tony felt relieved knowing that he was awake.

Hearing that Pepper was back from the store, Tony smiled and walked towards the kitchen where he could see some lights that were coming from candles. Pepper was standing over the stove stirring her soup that was in the pot, two candles each placed on the sides of the stove giving her access to see what she was doing.

"Hey" Tony said as he walked up behind her, reaching over to plant a kiss on her cheek. "Why didn't you or Jarvis wake me?"

"Because you needed the rest." Pepper answered back giving him a sweet smile. "I'm guessing the back up lights don't work either huh?"

"Yeah, I'll go down and see what's wrong with them." Tony mumbled as he was making his way down the hallway that led to the stairs to his lab until Pepper stopped him.

"Wait, you need a flashlight, how else are you going to see down there?" Pepper asked, starting to look for a flashlight.

"I don't need one. See." Tony said with a smile on his face as he tapped on the arc reactor. Pepper just rolled her eyes and watched as her genius boyfriend slowly disappeared down the darkened hallway.

_I guess I should've gotten a flashlight._ Tony mumbled to himself. Although the reactor provided light, it wasn't as bright as he thought it would be, and he hoped that he wouldn't trip on anything that was laying on the floor. Jinxing himself, he bumped into a chair that he had left a couple days ago when he was supposedly cleaning and forgot to move it from there.

"Ah, son of a bitch." As he flashed his reactor to the chair to see where it was so on his way back he wouldn't run into it, he saw a life size clown sitting down on it. Jumping back as if he were electrocuted, he stared at the clown dumbfounded as to how it got there. If anything thing scared or creep-ed out the great Tony Stark, it would definitely be clowns. He hated them, never understood how little kids could have so much fun with them at circuses or parties, to him they looked downright creepy as hell even with that smile always plastered on their face.

Stark stood there staring at the clown still unable to move, he started to notice that the painted smile now seemed to mock him, the upturned mouth smug and unpleasant. Its face was chalk white that looked like it was made from wax, tiny bells were sewn throughout it's clothes, Tony was certain he saw malice in its eyes.

Finally snapping out of it Tony's eyes left the clowns and found his voice, "That's not funny Pepper, you bought this...life size clown as a get well present? I told you that those things creep me out."

Poking her head through the hallway, Tony could see with his arc reactor the confused look she had. "What are you talking about? I didn't buy you a present, besides I even think clowns are creepy too."

"Well then who the hell put this-", turning around to gesture at the clown, Tony noticed that the chair was empty. He could feel his heart rate speed up a little bit. Pepper still stared at him confused as she slowly walked up to him

"Hey, look...you still have a fever the lights can stay off, come sit down the soup is done already." Pepper spoke to him as calmly as she could, grabbing a hold of his hand.

"No that's fine I have to fix them either way, I just need sleep that's all." Tony replied quietly giving her a half smile. He let go of her hand and proceeded down the stairs to his lab.

Once he was down to the last step, he entered his access code on the door and went in his lab and headed straight to a circuit box that was hooked on a wall, as he opened it he saw that everything was fried. "Great." Tony huffed out. It would take him a while to fix it, but he needed a good amount of light so he could see what he was doing. As he was closing the circuit box he heard faint giggling by the steps that he had just come down from. He automatically thought it was Pepper for some reason, "Hey Pep be careful on the steps, I don't want you tripping on anything." The genius spoke loudly as he was still trying to close the box with what little light he had.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you!." It was obvious to him that Pepper wasn't anywhere near the steps as her voice sounded to be coming from the living room.

Lifting his head and slightly turning it to the side he could still hear giggling, only this time it was followed by a jingling noise that seemed to be getting closer and louder each time. He could feel his blood turn cold and his heart beating faster, bringing goose bumps to his arms as he knew that the dainty sound of the bells were to let him know that the clown was near. The ex playboy stood there frozen not knowing what to do until a flash of lightning illuminated the whole lab for two seconds, giving him a chance to see that nothing was there in front of him. The giggling had stopped but the sound of the bells where still getting louder and closer. Again lightning lit the room up for a few more seconds, this time Tony took advantage and looked around the whole room but saw nothing.

_Screw this,_ Tony thought to himself. He quickly closed the circuit box shut and jogged his way to the glass door. Before reaching the door he ran into what felt like a person and fell down on his butt. As if on que lightning struck again bringing the whole place to light as Tony tried to see who or what he ran into, again he saw nothing. He was beyond creeped out already, running into what felt like a person and noticing that nothing was there really scared the shit out of him. Slowly getting up on shaky legs he quickly walked to the door and typed in his code. Once the door opened he took the stairs two at a time almost falling a couple times until he reached the top and tried to casually make his way to the living room while catching his breath.

He saw Pepper's shadow figure and he felt a little bit relieved just knowing that she was there. Taking a seat next to her on the couch he sighed and saw that she was on her phone. As she looked up at him he felt that same pit in his stomach like last time and his blood immediately went cold again seeing that the figure he assumed was Pepper had actually been of the clown. The smile on the clown's face looked sinister, low humming could be heard as it penetrated Tony's ears. The terrified genius quickly stood up but didn't know where to go. Was he really going to be able to hide away from this in his own house? His legs felt like jelly as he stood there not knowing what else to do but stare in shock.

Slowly the clown stood up, making the bells jingle. Its body was stiff. It moved slow but with purpose. Each step it took, Tony took a step back not letting the damned thing get closer to him. He tried to call out to Pepper, nothing but a whisper escaped his lips. Tony could still hear the humming in his ears and it was making them hurt so he put his hands on his ears trying to not hear the humming that just grew louder each time.

"Come Play with me. I won't hurt you." Hearing those words coming out of the clowns mouth sent shivers down Tony's back. He blinked one hard time and as he opened them he came face to face with the clown. The most creepiest laugh filled up Tony's ears making them ache in pain. He couldn't take it anymore, the pain was unbearable, he slowly found his voice, "Pepper...Pepper!". Tony was to busy trying to not hear the laughter of the clown that stood right in front of, he didn't see Pepper come out of the bathroom from upstairs.

"Tony? What's wrong?" As soon as Pepper had heard her boyfriend call her name she knew something was wrong. Seeing Tony holding his hands to his ears clearly in pain made her heart ache, but she didn't know why he had that terrified look on his face. She made her way down the steps and quickly took a hold of his hands and she could feel heat radiating off of him as she gently shook him. "Tony it's OK, open your eyes." Pepper tried to assure him that everything was fine.

Tony hadn't noticed that Pepper was in front of him until slowly the creepy laughter died down and the pain subsided. He could hear Pepper's voice assuring him everything was OK, so he slowly opened his eyes and met hers.

"Hey are you OK?" Pepper asked.

Tony realized the clown was gone and it was just Pepper standing in front of him. He stared at her for awhile until he felt light-head and let his eyes roll in the back of his head as he fell down to the floor and his body started to convulse.

"Tony!" Pepper knelt down next to him trying to hold him still so he wouldn't hurt himself with anything.

The last thing Tony could hear was Pepper telling Jarvis to call 911 until he fell unconscious.

_**So I hope you guys like this chapter, I think maybe one more chapter to go until this story is done. I don't know about you guys but I sure as hell don't like clowns at all, I guess that's why I decided to write this chapter about a clown because I think most people think clowns are creepy. Anyway please review let me know if you guys liked it or what you guys thought of it, have a nice 4th of July! :)**_


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